CHART OF THE DAY: 'Core Economic Growth Slowed Sharply In Q4'

In regards to this morning's mediocre GDP report, Nomura cuts
right to the chase in a note titled 'Core Economic Growth Slowed
Sharply' in Q4.

Here's their commentary:

Inventory building contributed 1.9 percentage points (pp) to
growth in Q4 2011 after subtracting 1.4pp in Q3. The measure of
final sales, which is a “core” view of the economy that removes
the effect of inventories, grew at an annual rate of just 0.8% in
Q4 compared with 3.2% in Q3. Under this perspective, the US
economy slowed sharply in the final quarter of the year. The
choppiness in quarterly growth in the back half of 2011 is
partially due to the rebound following the dampening effect on
economic growth stemming from the Japan earthquake and tsunami
that hit on 11 March. The second half rebound was front-loaded
into Q3. The same pattern can be seen when looking at the
industrial production data, which also tracks the broad economy.
In Q3, industrial production rebounded to an annual growth rate
of 6.3% (following 0.6% in Q2) followed by slower growth of 3.1%
in Q4. To smooth the effect of the rebound from temporary
factors, economic growth in H2 2011 advanced at an average annual
rate of 2.2% compared with 0.8% in H1.

And here's the chart that demonstrates the point. The gray line
is what Nomura calls 'core'.